Purchasing a classical guitar can be a difficult task particularly if you are not yet an accomplished player. Here are some tips and hints on finding a good quality classical guitar whether it is in the hundred dollar range or the thousand dollar range.

If you are have ever gone into a well stocked guitar shop you have no doubt been confused by the selection of guitars. There are literally hundreds of shapes, sizes brands and types of guitars. And the price can range from a hundred dollars to several thousand. .If you are a beginner, judging the sound quality can be difficult to do because your ear is not yet highly trained. Here are some tips to help you make a good choice.

When in a guitar shop and looking at the guitars you should always ask a sales person to help you. This way you can take guitars down and play them. If you cannot play very well you should ask the sales clerk to play for you so you can get a feel for the sound of the different guitars. If the sales clerk doesnt play you should ask if there is someone working in the shop that does play. As a last resort you should even ask other customers in the store. Not listening to the different guitars is like shopping for a car but never test driving any of them. Guitars have very different feels and tones and you should listen to a lot of them to get a sense of what you like. Dont be bashful in this respect. Guitarists are usually a very gregarious bunch and a guitarist will almost always jump at the chance to play for someone else. If you dont yet play well and you cant find somebody to play for you I recommend you not purchase a guitar. You should come back another time when someone is available to play or you can bring a friend who knows how to play.

Check the size and shape of the guitar

Classical Guitars, of course, come in different sizes and shapes and you should sit with a wide variety of them to get a feeling for what is comfortable to you. Your body shape has an effect on this. If you are over six feet tall the smaller guitars might not be comfortable for you and the fret board may be uncomfortable for your hands. So even if you cant play music you should always hold and sit with the guitars to get a sense of how the different ones feel.

Check the mechanics and playability of the guitar

Here are several things you should do when considering the purchase of a classical guitar.

1. Play every note on every string all the way up and down. Listen for frets that dont play properly. They will give a rattling sound and if this occurs on any fret at all you should put the guitar aside and try another one. This is a sign of inferior quality. Every string should play cleanly on every single fret.

2. Check the action of the strings against the frets in terms of how much pressure is needed to play notes and chords. You should play bar chords all the way down the frets to insure good pressure. If it is too hard to press the strings in order to make a clear chord this could be a sign of an inferior guitar.

3. Play harmonics on the strings. This is an excellent test of the quality of the guitar. Playing harmonics is the technique of plucking the note with your right hand and only lightly touching the string with your left hand. Test the harmonics of all the strings on the 5th, 7th, 12th and 19th frets. If you do not know how to play harmonic notes ask the sales clerk to help you.

4. Examine and test the tuning pegs. Do they look clean and sharp? Wind and unwind them while watching and feeling for smooth turning motion.

5. Visually examine the whole guitar. Look it over very carefully from front to back and top to bottom. Are there any small cracks? Are the frets firmly installed into the fret board? Are there any cracks or glue exposed around the bridge?

6. Tap on the front of the guitar (The sound board) in a variety of different spots. Does it have a rich echoing sound or are there spots where it sounds dead and limp? The internal structure of the classical guitar is very important for the sound and important for the longevity of it. Dull thud sounds could be an indicator of an inferior instrument.

7. Examine the details. Look at the purfling around the edge. This is the decorated pattern that goes around the full body where the soundboard or face meets the sides of the guitar. Is it accurately laid in? If this has variations and inconsistencies it is a good sign that the guitar is of inferior quality.

8. Dont hesitate to take a good look inside the guitar sound hole. You will see wooden braces in there. Do they look straight, accurate and well placed? If you see sloppy globs of dried glue around these braces it could be an indicator of inferior craftsmanship.

9. Remember that there are three distinct areas you must consider when purchasing a classical guitar: The Look, The Feel, and the Sound. If you keep all three of these things in mind and carefully examine the guitar in relation to these you will be able to choose an instrument that will bring you a lifetime of trouble free playing enjoyment.

A Classical Guitar is a purchase that can give you a lifetime of enjoyment and you should consider the purchase carefully. Even if you dont plan on playing every day you should buy an instrument that is of good quality so it will maintain its sound quality for a lifetime. And to do this you dont need to spend thousands of dollars you just need to know how to identify a well made guitar.

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Sure, you can listen to hip hop radio stations to hear all the hip hop music that you want, but this is also the perfect location for much more including interviews, information about artists, and finding concert information as well. Throughout the radio waves there is an increasing amount of hip hop radio stations. And, whether they play hardcore rap or if they play a combination of hip hop and pop, you can really turn to these stations for much more information.

Hip hop radio stations offer the best of hip hop. There is no doubt that people can tune in to hear 50 Cent?s latest or to find out when he?ll be in concert. What is great is that you can count on hearing a wide range of information including new artists as well as the older artists with new songs and their old. And, with so many people looking for this type of music in this type of setting, there just seems to be quite a few hip hop radio stations happening.

But, they offer more than just music. In many cases they are full of more information about the hip hop world than you can find almost anywhere else. By the time hip hop magazines hit store shelves, the information is already old. Instead of waiting to hear it there, simply turn the dial. Now, we are talking about what is happening with the artists at any given time as well as when concerts are who will be interviewed next and even political topics that set the artists off. If you want to know their view and need an inside look, you can count on getting it from the hip hop radio stations out there.

Of course, you probably tune to your favorite hip hop radio stations to find the latest and hottest hip hop on the radio. But, you really can gather a wealth of information from these radio stations as well. To find out what is out there, check the websites featuring them as well as other hip hop websites.

Hip Hop Capital is your online hip hop resource. The place where you can find TONS of everything hip hop. Hip Hop Capital has been a force online for years and only continues to grow. Go to http://hiphopcapital.com/catalog/wholesale.html and see for yourself why thousands choose Hip Hop Capital.

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

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It was only a matter of time before cyberspace prevailed in the music industry …

‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley made history by becoming the Number One song in the United Kingdom’s singles charts without one CD being available in stores. Over 31,000 legal downloads were compiled after the song was featured on BBC’s Radio One.

Among other things, that would rank the song right up there as the ultimate impulse buy.

To be accurate, ‘Crazy’ won this distinction because of a recent amendment to the British music industry’s rule that a song’s download couldn’t count against its sales until it became available in stores. However, the point has been made that, just as digital discs replaced tapes and records in personal music consumption, the torch has now been passed to digital transfers.

PC World noted this eventuality in its January 2006 issue, noting that music download sales tripled in 2005. That accounted for six percent of the music industry’s sales for the year, impressive in that it also signifies a dent in the number of pirated tracks. Figures released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry — the authoritative source — revealed a tally of $1.1billion in download sales during the year.

Gnarls Barkley’s digital achievement came just over a month after another cyber-landmark was attained. The billionth download in iTunes history occurred in late February 2006, when a Michigan teen ordered Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’ for the sum of 99 cents. That price is yet another reason why singles — almost eradicated by the trend toward albums in the 1970s — are back, and in a big way.

And to think that the music industry spent the early years of the Cyber Era trying to deny, or at least discourage, its existence.

Perhaps finally realizing that such a tactic didn’t work for blacksmiths at the turn of the last century, the recording moguls — albeit grudgingly — sought to learn from the new technology. The key to their success to date is their seeming awareness that their objective is to find their niche in the cybermarket, rather than attempt to dominate it. Granted, it’s a mega-niche, but the industry apparently accepts that it will no longer be the lone gateway between artist and consumer.

Retailers, for example, are beginning to capitalize on the social aspects of music purchases. There will always be teens, and congregating for music is a long-standing trait of theirs. When it’s in the malls or on Main Street, the major chains are preparing to offer kiosks where downloads can be purchased on-site. With their vast inventories of stock, these stores present an ideal means of searching for songs, sampling them and then sharing opinions, which perfectly describes the normal buying habits of both teens and tweens (ie- the 9-to-12 set).

Verizon is on the front lines for the mobile niche of music retailing with its VCast technology. This service transforms the wireless phone into a portable music player by synchronizing music already stored on the user’s PC. It can also be used to buy new songs or albums from the Verizon Wireless music catalog, which is accessed via cellular phone or PC.

Quality of sound for music downloads continues to improve exponentially, which further increases the attractiveness of downloads. FXSound is on the cutting edge in this respect with its critically acclaimed DFX Audio Enhancement package. Compatible with virtually every major music platform, from MP3s to Internet radio, DFX is trumpted as the first plug-in to make truly professional-quality audio processing available to Internet audio users. They do this by restoring the full range of frequency harmonics, thus creating the auspices of a high-end home music system. Its effects are amazing.

Where Gnarls Barkley has gone, legions will follow. Cyber-dominance in the music industry is now a hard fact, so the real top has yet to be popped.

Copyright 2006 – The Longer Life Group

J Square Humboldt writes for the Longer Life Group, which provides information designed to improve the quality of living. His page is at http://longerlifegroup.com/cyberiter.html and his observations are published three times per week.

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

More articles at article database

You have heard all the claims?..Sing Like a Star ?..10 Easy Steps to Sounding Like a Pro ?..Increase Your Range by 2 Octaves Guaranteed! It can be overwhelming to sift through the scads of information on the latest vocal techniques and easiest road to success. These promises can be alluring to even the most experienced singer. To help clear up some of the hype, I have outlined what you can realistically expect during your first year of training. Once you have the facts, you will be better able to select a vocal coach that will take you where you want to go.

For most people, the decision to take vocal lessons is a big one, so please give yourself credit for taking this important step. Proper vocal training will result in a strong healthy voice that will continue to improve long after you have stopped regular lessons. Some people need a few classes to ease into it while others jump in immediately. Regardless of where you are currently, know that you have made the right decision??????.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

Beginner ? First 3 Months

During this time, you will have the most vocal challenges. You may have developed poor technique or damaged your voice due to a lack of proper training. You do not know your true potential. You may lack confidence or may even be overconfident. Your voice gets tired when singing. You lack range, power, and are apprehensive about hitting high notes. It is difficult to put aside old ideas in order to make room for new ones. It is difficult to absorb all the new information at this time so a student may push too hard wanting to progress quickly. They may choose to drop out before making noticeable improvements.

Believe it or not but this is good news! This is a temporary stage that will pass with practice and patience. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will allow you and your coach to work together to eliminate these limitations. You can do it!

Intermediate ? 4 to 9 Months

This is the period where significant progress is made. The learning curve and settling in period has passed. You have made the commitment. Bad habits are replaced with good ones. Proper technique is becoming automatic. You begin to connect with the music not only on a technical level but on a creative level as well. Your unique sound is being discovered. Friends and family notice an improvement and are curious about what you have been doing. They start to make positive comments about what they are hearing. Confidence increases. You become willing to stretch your boundaries even further and leave old ideas behind.

Advanced ? 10 to 12 Months

You are now able to sing using proper vocal technique. You sing from the bottom to the top of your range without strain. Your voice is stronger and louder. You have more stamina and singing appears effortless. Your range has increased and you reach the desired pitch, including high notes. You become independent and learn how to monitor yourself when practicing. Lessons start to become less frequent.

Graduate Student ? One Year Onward

Periodic classes are required to keep you on track and discourage you from falling into old habits or creating new bad ones. As a singer cannot hear the real sound of their voice while singing, an occasional class is necessary. All of your hard work has paid off. Congratulations!

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER??.

Vocal Training CD: While a vocal training CD will accelerate the learning process, they do not replace lessons. Most products offer a variety of exercises. Some exercises are intended to activate qualities in your voice while other exercises are designed to de-activate qualities. A student has no way of knowing what is helpful and what is counterproductive. Please, use them as a learning tool only. Leave the training to a qualified vocal coach.

Selecting a Vocal Coach: A coach must practice what they preach. Are they able to sing a variety of musical styles or just their favorite? You will want to select someone who will take you in the musical direction you want to go in and not just follow the path they have taken. Do not limit yourself to teachers close to home or work. Working with a coach that can bring out the best in your voice is the goal. It will be worth the extra distance. Find an environment where you can express yourself freely and one that offers open communication so training can be modified with your changing interests.

Remember, it is in your hands. The commitment you make to lessons and practice will determine the outcome. Go for it and have fun…

Donna Flynn
www.vocalcoach.ca
donnavocalcoach@yahoo.ca
416-436-8063

After moving to Toronto from Montreal, Donna began a journey of vocal training that connected her with coaches in Nashville, Los Angeles, San Francisco, as well as the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. Although she found the techniques to be practical and was taught scales designed to improve the voice, she soon realized that no one was able to offer a method that allowed her to sing the many different styles of music she enjoyed singing.

It was clear that the only way she would find training that would bring out ALL the qualities that are UNIQUE to her voice, would be to develop it herself. So she did…

Over the years, Donna has developed a complete mind / body / spirit / voice method designed to access the energy from the body to eliminate any pressure that may prohibit us from singing our best. She combines specific rhythms and music patterns along with exercises designed to building proper breath support while gently working the entire vocal range, top to bottom.

Donna is a member of SOCAN.

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

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While the plot of Disney?s Aladdin is perfectly competent, and Robin Williams does a star turn as the genie, it is the film?s songs that make it truly memorable, to the point where Disney has been able to produce successful stage musicals in the same way as it has for the Lion King.

The song everyone remembers, of course, is A Whole New World. It won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy, not to mention finally knocking ?I Will Always Love You? off the top of the chart ? not bad for a sentimental song from a kids? film. It still weighs heavily on the public consciousness, and is apparently the most-performed song at every American Idol audition.

Then there?s the title song, Arabian Nights, which refers to the title of the original book the story was taken from (variously known as the Book of One Thousand and One Nights, or 1,001 Arabian Nights, among other translations). This song was the source of considerable controversy in the Arab world upon the film?s original release, because of the lyric ?where they cut off your ear if they don?t like your face?. This has since been changed to ?where it?s flat and immense and the heat is intense? for the home video and DVD releases.

Then there?s the song that introduces the genie, Friend Like Me, with one of the trippiest sequences in any Disney film. It was this song more than anything that made the genie such a great character, although he also does well in the Prince Ali song (the one that he sings when Aladdin becomes a prince and makes his way to the palace).

Overall, when you look at the music of Aladdin, it is surprising how good it is as a whole ? there really isn?t any one song that lets the side down. It is doubtlessly one of Disney?s finest musicals.

John Gibb is the owner of aladdin data , For more information on aladdin check out http://www.aladdin-resources4u.info

Hip Hop music is popular with today’s youth. The Hip Hop audience ranges in age from the very young to the seasoned at heart. The messages in the music are clear and often depict life in the real world. Most artist use their own life experiences to tell stories that reflect what their world is like. Hip Hop music is a venue that gives the artist an opportunity to tell it like it is. Many of today’s youth find that through the sounds and messages of Hip Hop they are able to see reflections of themselves and the world around them.

Although some of the messages conveyed by Hip Hop are viewed as negative, it must be understood that the lyrics in these songs are someone’s reality. Hip Hop artist sing about what they have seen and many of their personal experiences. Unfortunately, many of their experiences are not so pretty. Other Hip Hop songs carry a positive message and force the listener to think and dream beyond their current situation. Hip Hop music has taken America by a storm and it will continue to influence our youth. We must all these free expression and the growth of Hip Hop music because what we hear is relative to what’s going on in the world today.

GMP Records, Inc. http://www.godmadeitpossible4me.com also check out http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/deepcover

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Now that Halloween is over, it’s safe to talk about traditional piano lessons – the tedium, the boredom, the overbearing teachers with their incessant metronome beats.

Do we really need this? Do we really need yet another polished perfomer who can play Czerny and Beethoven on cue? Don’t we have enough of these skilled typists already? I think so. And frankly, I just don’t get it. I don’t get why anyone would want to learn how to play other people’s music.

Of course this music is worthy of preserving, but I’m speaking about being creative at the piano. I’m talking about the ability to sit down at the keyboard and just play without forethought or planning.

Is there value in this kind of approach to playing? Yes! And while improvisation and composition are taught, it’s not emphasized. It’s relegated to inferior status while the poor student spends time first learning how to read notes and then recreating what has already been done. What a shame.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can lead with an emphasis on creativity first! To do this does not require more than a very rudimentary knowledge of chords, a way to play them, and a guided instruction on how to improvise. Imagine the joy students will feel when they realize how easy it is to create music!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!